Movie Review: Rebellion ✭✭✭✭ (in cinemas 19th April)
Truth Hurts. Lies Kill.
Release Date: 19th
April 2013
Review by Christina Benneworth
Mathieu Kassovitz makes a powerful comeback in front of and behind the camera with this violent thriller, based on true events. Not only does Mathieu star in this movie he was also the director, and it has to be one of his best movies in years.
It’s April 1988 on the Ouvéa Island in the French colony of New Caledonia. 30 police are kidnapped by Kanak separatists and in response 300 special-forces operatives are sent in to restore order. To avoid unnecessary conflict, Philippe Legorjus (Kassovitz), the captain of an elite counter-terrorism police unit, is sent in to the heart of the rebel base to negotiate a peaceful solution. But against the highly pressured backdrop of presidential elections in France, the stakes are high and all bets are off.
Rebellion was a very entertaining cinematic history lesson, a great insight in to the politics surrounding war. The way the story is told is very clever and intelligent; this is more than your average good-guys against that bad-guys story, it is far more complex. This film does an outstanding job of portraying both sides of the argument, which is quite difficult as in most movies you tend to get one side of the argument, it’s nice for once to see all points of view.
The only negative aspect with this movie is that the beginning is relatively slow; it takes quite a while for the story to get going. And only when the movie picks up the pace do you start engaging with the movie and its characters.
Overall though, a great movie and with a very interesting insight it to a conflict that most of us aren’t even aware of.
4 stars ✭✭✭✭
